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Explore the Critical Chain Method of Project Network Diagrams So we’ve talked about the idea of “floating” in the critical path. I want to wrap this up by talking about the critical chain method. The critical chain method is another project network diagramming approach. It focuses, though, on the project delivery date. It considers the availability of resources, something that we don’t have in the critical path method. So the critical chain looks to see: can I use this resource at these times? Is it scheduled somewhere else in the…

Activity: Finding Float All right, welcome back. Here’s an activity for you to practise finding a float on the critical path. This is what the float exercise looks like. It’s a resource for you in this lecture here. So you can download this as a PDF. However, if you really want to emulate your exam experience, draw this out by hand. So they’re going to show you a graphic like this. And they might say, “How much floats on activity F?” Or if I delay activity C by one day,…

Develop the Project Schedule We’re now going to talk about developing the project schedule. This is always one of the most popular topics when I teach this course because it includes the cumbersome activity of finding the critical path and letting it float. So let’s hop in and we’ll walk through this in a logical order, and then we’re going to talk all about flotation and how you find the critical path. Developing the schedule means defining the sequence of events and the duration of the activities, which tells us…

Estimate the Activity Resources The next step is to calculate the activity resources. We have so far identified our scope, decomposed it, and found the activity list; now we’ve already put the activities in order. So the next step is to figure out what resources we’ll need and how much of each we’ll need to complete the various activities. Now, resources are not just people. Now, primarily, that’s what we’ll be using—labor—but also consider equipment, tools, facilities, and any material that you’re going to need in order to complete the…

Define the Project Activities The whole point of project management is to get stuff done. And the way that things get done is that people have to take action. They have to execute the work and the project plan. So now we’re going to talk about defining those project activities, which are the actions that your team will take to create the elements within the work breakdown structure. So if you recall back in Module 5, in the pinbox that we talked about, we had the scope statement, and in…

Section Overview Now it’s time to talk about time management. Well, technically, we’re talking about schedule management, and our conversation is going to begin in this section about planning schedule management. This is really going to define how the schedule is developed, how you’re going to manage it, execute it, and control it. So this is about creating a schedule management plan. There are lots of things to look for in this section, particularly what’s in the schedule management plan. So we’re going to talk all about the things that…

Lead Project Team Development Let’s talk about leading the project team’s development. But your team needs to work together and rely on one another in order for the project to be successful. And we want people to be independent but also interdependent. And we want people to feel motivated and engaged with one another and with you as the project manager. So in this lecture, we’re going to talk all about leading the development of project team development. This is Section 9-3 of the Pinbach Guide, Fifth Edition. And our…

Section Overview We are now moving into Chapter 9 of the Pinbox, talking about planning human resources management. There is a lot of information to discuss. In this section, we’ll begin our conversation about creating a human resource management plan. This is all about identifying our project team needs, determining who reports to whom, assigning roles and responsibilities, and creating a staffing management plan. This is how we get people on the project and how we release people from the project. Our staffing management plan in this section, we’ll also…

Control Project Costs Cost control management and stakeholder relations are two of the most sensitive topics in a project. They anticipate that costs will remain low in comparison to your cost baseline. So we need to control costs. We need to take a proactive approach to control. The project’s costs must be kept under control. We have to consider everything, from changes, errors, and omissions to any type of variance or fluctuation from vendors. We have to account for that because it can really just mushroom into a big cost…

Estimate Project Costs Now that we’ve created a cost management plan, that plan will direct how we create the project cost estimates. So it’s really important to understand when estimating happens. The earlier in the project it happens, the less reliable and viable those estimates are going to be. As you have more and more information available about your project, your level of confidence and the accuracy of your estimates are going to increase. And this is an example of the progressive elaboration that we saw a little bit earlier…